How to Cook Everything: The Basics

I've blown up pies in the oven. My gravy could be used as paste in a kindergarten classroom. The final straw on my ineptitude in the kitchen was the day I set a pot of boiling water on fire. I was tired of the jokes from my family. I did not like being called the Lean Cuisine Queen, or the Microwave Diva. I come from a long line of fine Southern cooks, and it wasn't right or fair that I would be the odd man out.

This book started me on the path to being a Kitchen Goddess. I learned how to properly chop vegetables and unpeel cloves of garlic. I can now peel and devein shrimp with the best of them. Each chapter I read twice before I moved on to actually making the recipes at hand. I love this book. I repeat, I LOVE THIS BOOK.

This book may show more not be right for you if you were fortunate or smart enough to wander into the kitchen in your youth for more than a Dorito sandwich and a soda. However, if you are (or were) like me and consider the kitchen as the room where the milk is kept, this may just be your road to salvation. I know it was for me. show less

This book would make an excellent gift for a college student or a young person just starting out on their own. Good instruction and pictures on basic cooking techniques. Also good for those of us whose culinary education has been sporadic.

This is worth buying.

great basic recipies with a slightly different twist - great resource, Beth would love